Star Wars The Force Awakens REWRITTEN
by KillerJango
Summary: In this retelling of Star Wars The Force Awakens, I venture to tell a more compelling story than the original while sticking (mostly) to the given story arc. I am all for feedback so feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you think I should change/do.
1. Prelude

**Prelude**

Seaspray and wind buffet the man as he sits silently atop a rock. He sits cross legged and breathes in rhythm to the ocean's endless assault and retreat.

The lines on his face wrinkle as he breathes in. Too many lines for a man of his age. The marks of a man who has seen and been through too much in too short a time.

He breathes out, more of an explosive sigh than a outtake of breath.

"It's over." The man rasps as he lowers his head. "The Force is dead."

A small translucent green figure lined in a blue mist coalesces suddenly in front of the man. "Hmm, dead say you?"

The man looks up, eyes wide. "Impossible...Master Yoda?"

Yoda lets out a nasally chuckle and nods his head. "Dead the Force is not. Wait it does, yes. Patient is the way of the Force." Yoda takes step towards the man and pokes him in the chest with his walking stick. "A virtue you have yet to learn young Skywalker.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Darkness, the whine of straining engines as the dropship descends through the atmosphere, the claustrophobic feeling of too many bodies pressed into the crew bay, the life of a stormtrooper.

Earpieces crackle to life as the pilot's voice comes over the radio. "One minute from drop. Ready up!"

Dim red lights flicker on and slowly fills the dropship as stormtroopers double and triple check their gear and weapons.

Their comms crackle to life again with the pilot's voice. "Rebel insurgents have been spotted mobilizing on the ground. Be prepared for a hot landing." The pilot's voice is flat and professional, completely at ease with the current situation.

Finn takes a deep breath as he tries to slow his racing heart.

How in all the galaxy had he gotten himself here? After being assigned to a quiet post in the outer rim, he thought himself set for the rest of a peaceful career. He would have had that very thing if he didn't do the one thing no stormtrooper in his right mind should ever do, get noticed.

He was on guard detail for an inspection team on Juno, a snow covered world acting as one of the First Order's key mining outposts. It should have been like every other boring time he had been out on inspection, and it was until an insurgent suicide bomber showed up out of nowhere. Purely on instinct Finn had raised his blast and fired. Half skill, half luck, the shot hit the insurgent square in the head, dropping him instantly and allowing the dead man's switch to trigger the bomb at a safe enough distance.

Had that been it, he might have gotten away with just a pat on the back, but no, Captain Phasma, head of all First Order's stormtroopers, had been there for a surprise inspection.

For saving her life she had him transferred to one of her own personal squads. That had been almost six months ago now.

A solid thunk reverberates through the dropship as its landing gear deploys. Then, a ten second timer winks on in the upper right corner of the stormtrooper's huds.

 _Ten seconds to hell._ Finn muses, following the countdown in his head.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6...

Troopers absorb the stop of downward momentum with bent knees as the dropship touches down.

5…

4…

The dropship hatch hisses as the atmosphere equalizes and it begins to open.

3...

2…

1….

The countdown reaches zero and flashes green. There is a single full second of nothing but silence as the hatch finishes opening. Blaster fire explodes into the dropship bay as the stormtroopers try and push their way out. The first two rows of stormtroopers are trampled as their blaster scorched corpses are shoved forward and out of the ship.

"Cover! Get to cover!" A squad leader shouts over the comm channel.

Finn stumbles over the dead bodies and runs to the nearest piece of terrain the other troopers had adopted as cover. He falls prone next to the others and waits as heavy blaster turrets are set up around him.

The noise of the battle is tremendous. Blaster rifles and heavy blaster turrets discharge at a near constant rate as thermal detonator blasts and tie fighter strafing runs throw up sand everywhere.

A female officer next to Finn stands up and yells to the surrounding troopers. "Let's go! Everyone push u…" She's cut short suddenly as a blaster bolt hits her in the neck. She falls down, hand clutching her neck.

The stormtroopers look away from the dying officer and begin to move up as ordered.

Finn picks himself up and sprints halfway to a house before tripping on an unseen rock in the sand, knocking him prone once more. Blaster fire sizzles and ionizes the air above him as he crawls towards the building.

Finn reaches the house and stands up in a crouch, catching his breath. As he's catching his breath, a man with a blaster comes around the corner and freezes, seeing Finn. He obviously hadn't known the First Order had pushed up so far, but he had his rifle leveled even as he was coming around the corner. Finn couldn't react in time, all the man had to do was pull the trigger.

A shot rings out and the man who was looking a Finn just a moment before crumpled to the ground, eyes rolling back in his head. Finn whips around, looking for where the shot that saved his life had come from.

He spots his friend Jax making his way to him. Jax is about to say something, when a thermal detonator lands in the middle of the pair. Finn instinctively takes a step back, but only pushes himself up against the wall of the house. Jax, instead of stepping back, instead rushes towards the detonator and throws himself on top of it. It explodes, launching Jax into the wall of the house next to Finn.

Finn goes to his knees and stares at what's left of his friend. Barely clinging to life, Jax's legs are gone and there's nothing but red paste where his ribs and lower intestines used to be. Lungs full of blood, Jax puts a hand to Finn's helmet and tries to say something but only manages a weak gurgle. He slips silently into death, hand going limp, leaving a trailing hand streak of blood on Finn's helmet.

Finn falls back, horrified and stunned at the scene in front of him. He manages to back up to the wall of the building, but he can't take his eyes off his dead friend. He continued to sit and stare until another trooper stepped in front of his gaze, breaking eye contact.

"C'mon trooper, Captain Phasma nearly has the rest of the villagers rounded up. Let's go!" Finn inspects the stormtrooper spotting the orange shoulder plate which marks the man as a captain. The captain holds his hand out, pulling Finn to his feet.

They make their way through the burning houses and rubble before coming to the middle of the town. There, about two dozen women, children, and a couple men stand in a large circle with hands raised.

Finn and the trooper who led him there take spots in the large circle of stormtroopers surrounding the villagers.

A loud whine of engines from above reveals another descending dropship.

Finn watches as the dropship lands and the hatch opens. He freezes for the second time tonight as a figure clad in black robes steps down from the ship.

Kylo Ren, said to practice the old dark magics, one of the most powerful people in the First Order.

 _Why is he here?_ Finn asks himself as the man strides towards Captain Phasma and the rest of the group.

"Where is he?" Kylo asks Captain Phasma in a deeply modulated voice.

Phasma gestures, and two troopers step forward with an old man between them. At another command, they release him and step back.

"Master Lauren." Kylo takes a step towards the man. "Look how old you have become."

The former master looks at Kylo, measuring him. "And you have become something far worse, Ben.

Kylo tenses for a moment then relaxes. "If you say that name again old man or don't give me what I've come for, I will kill you and every villager here myself."

"And what is it you have come for?"

Kylo's fist clenches. "You know what I've come for. We've held a copy of the map for over a year now, but without the key we lack the means to open it. The key that, we've come to find out, Luke Skywalker himself entrusted you with." He holds out a gloved hand. "Now, hand over the key, or I will kill every last one of these people."

Lauren shakes his head, a sad expression on his face. "You would kill me and these people either way. Besides, you are already too late. I've handed the key over to a rebellion agent. It's over Kylo."

Kylo's head bows slightly as he clenches his fists. He speaks mockingly, rage just beneath the surface. "You always could read me so well."

In a blur of motion, Kylo's cross-shaped lightsaber snaps into his gloved hand and activates. The lightsaber's blade crackles and spits red energy as Kylo raises the saber in two hands and comes down in an overhead chop. It connects, slicing, then instantly cauterizing the flesh as is separates the man from shoulder to pelvis.

A shot rings out from Kylo's right. Inhumanly fast, Kylo spins out of the way of the blaster shot and extends his arm. A ripple of energy blurs through the air before reaching the, now exposed, man. The man is thrown back a step before freezing completely, unable to move.

"Bring him to me." Kylo sheaths his saber and motions to the two stormtroopers who had held the old man. They bring the man over and knock him down to his knees.

"And so the rebel agent delivers himself to me on a platter." Kylo crouches down to look the man in the face. "What's your name?"

The man looks up and smiles. "The name's Poe Dameron, devilishly handsome and self proclaimed best fighter pilot in the resistance."

"Yet apparently not the best shot in the resistance." Kylo stands up and motions to one of the stormtrooper's. "Search him."

They go through everything, but come up empty. "Nothing sir." The stormtrooper salutes before taking hold of Poe again.

"Where is the key?" Kylo asks in a too calm voice.

"Like I'd tell you of all people." Poe sneers and spits on the ground in front of him.

"Bring him to the ship, I know his kind. He will break like the others before him." Kylo turns and starts to walk away before stopping and addressing Captain Phasma. "Oh and Captain,"

She snaps to attention. "Sir?"

"Kill the villagers. I won't have these people reinforce the rebellion's dwindling numbers."

She salutes to Kylo before turning and giving the order to her men.

Kylo takes one last look around and walks back to his ship.


End file.
